Main Movie Roles

Guest TV Roles

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BIOGRAPHY:

Jay Leno began his career in night clubs, where he worked 300 nights a year before hitting it big in 1992 with his own late-night talk show, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992). By that time he had appeared on television, acted in a few films (American Hot Wax (1978)) but hit paydirt with his late-night television appearances (he made a record number of visits to "Late Night with David Letterman" (1982)); for several years, he served as Johnny Carson (I)'s permanent guest host on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962). A big, sweet guy with a very good comedy routine, he vied with David Letterman to inherit Carson's seat when Johnny retired in 1992. His victory was well-publicized, but empty, though he did gain a measure of revenge when his show beat Letterman's for the Emmy in 1995. Though he consistently lost in the ratings to Letterman except on special occasions, like Hugh Grant (I)'s first TV appearance after his encounter with Divine Brown (I), he surged ahead in 1996, as CBS plunged further into oblivion.

TRIVIA:

On an episode of "The Tonight Show," he claimed that he got in his first auto accident a mere 81 hours after getting his driver's license.

Jay's father was Italian, but his mother was Scottish.

'Barack Obama' (qv)'s appearance on _"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992) {(2009-03-19)}_ (qv) marked the first TV talk show appearance by a sitting President.

He will step down as host of the _"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992)_ (qv) in 2009. His replacement will be current NBC _"Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993)_ (qv) host 'Conan O'Brien' (qv).

"The Mike Douglas Show"(1961) was the first talk show appearance for Jay Leno which aired on October 19, 1977. Danny Thomas and Teddy Pendergrass were also guests.

Although Leno's _"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992)_ (qv) predecessor 'Johnny Carson (I)' (qv) appeared on rival late night talk show _"Late Show with David Letterman" (1993)_ (qv) twice (in a walk-on stage appearance soon after Letterman's show debuted, and later in a filmed segment), Carson never once appeared on _"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992)_ (qv) with his successor. Many, including Leno, took this as a sign that "Johnny likes Dave more" and would have preferred 'David Letterman' (qv) to have been his "Tonight Show" replacement.